Martin Chirino. Chronicle of the Century

Martín Chirino (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, March 1, 1925 – Madrid, March 11, 2019) was, without a doubt, one of the most important Spanish sculptors with an extraordinary international projection. He held exhibitions in very prestigious museums and galleries, with his works forming part of reference collections. Along with his plastic production, he stood out for his enormous concern for the cultural situation, which led him to be the promoter of projects such as the rearticulation of the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid or the founding initiative of the Atlantic Center of Modern Art in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The spiral shape that evokes the wind is fundamental in Martín Chirino's aesthetics. A symbol as an allegory of the wind, but also the creative breath and breath, an embodiment of the power of chaos and its resolution in moments of suspension full of intensity. The extraordinary sculptures of Martín Chirino break the dichotomies, evoking at the same time the aerial and the aquatic element, the feeling of loneliness and the desire to strengthen common bonds, the obsession with the Canarian identity and the most lucid of cosmopolitanisms. Through his works we penetrate the radical experience of modernity, we contemplate an impressive spatial projection, with folds and folds of a beautiful modulation that makes the heavy light, in a search for the origin that keeps hope open. Commemorating Martín Chirino's poetics of space means daring to think about the destiny of our time, trying to trace itineraries, even in spirals and, ultimately, towards self-knowledge, that foster a good life in which beauty is not forbidden territory.

Fernando Castro Flórez Curator